Winneconne soccer team surging at the right time as WIAA postseason draws near

Winneconne's Emily Heyroth controls the ball against Appleton East during a game last month in Appleton.(Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

WINNECONNE - The Winneconne girls soccer team is hot at the right time as the Wolves are on a seven-game win streak going into the East Central Conference tournament.

Winneconne secured the top spot in the regular-season standings after giving Plymouth its first conference loss of the season with a 7-3 win last Thursday. Winneconne is 7-0 in conference and 15-2 overall.

“The senior class has really brought everyone together to play as well as they have this season,” Wolves coach Megan White said.

Plymouth beat the Wolves in a Division 3 sectional semifinal game last year, after they tied twice during the regular season.

“Honestly, it’s a team effort,” senior Emily Heyroth said. “It always feels good after a good win, especially coming back after a loss in the sectional and being able to beat them in the conference, and then obviously conference champs are coming up. So we still have another game, but we’re going to put it all in.”

“Those games that we do lose against big teams like that fires us up to want to win those games even more than we already do, so being able to work together and get a win against Plymouth is huge for us,” senior Kati Frierdich added.

The Wolves are ranked sixth in the state in Division 3 by the Wisconsin Soccer Coaches Association, and the players say working together has allowed them to be so effective this year.

“We have a great team,” Heyroth said. “All of us get along on and off the field, so it’s like bringing the off-field chemistry onto the in-field chemistry.”

“We’re always there to cheer each other on when something good happens or pick each other up if something bad were to happen,” Frierdich added. “Just being there for each other and constantly pushing each other to do our best is what really helps us.”

Buy Photo

Winneconne High School's Madeline Young (9) is on the move against Appleton East High School's Ellie Behnke (2) during their girls soccer game Thursday, April 25, 2019, in Appleton, Wis.
Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
(Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Frierdich, Heyroth and junior Morgan Fenrich are leading the team in scoring again, after being the top three scorers last year.

“It’s awesome having each other together again,” Heyroth said. “Honestly, we have great continuity within the team and it’s not only the forwards that work well together, it’s also defense up to mids and then mids finding forwards to finish the ball.”

Frierdich leads Winneconne with 29 goals and 10 assists, followed by Heyroth at 23 goals and 17 assists and Fenrich with 16 goals and 13 assists.

“Not only have we played together the past four years, but a lot of us played club together and then the new freshmen that are incoming, as soon as they get on the team, we welcome them in and we make sure that they start to understand the style of play that we are playing and then we all work together super well,” Frierdich said.

“We just learned what people do, like they’re movement off the ball, too, so it’s like finding Kati’s easy for me because I know the runs that she makes,” Heyroth added.

The Wolves have shut out opponents in five of the last seven games. Senior Payton Kurtz leads the Wolves with 29 saves in 805 minutes, while junior Lilianna De Jong has two saves and just four goals allowed in 524 minutes.

“We have a very aggressive defense,” Heyroth said. “They go after the ball, they run through it, they’re life savers along with our goalies, too. They’re doing great work and putting in some awesome minutes.”

Winneconne will play at Kewaskum on Thursday, followed by Plymouth at home on May 21 and at Kettle Moraine Lutheran on May 23 as the top four teams play against each other in the conference tournament. The Wolves took advantage of some time off before starting the conference tournament.

“We get some rest and that’s probably going to be the biggest thing because a lot of these teams for conference, they are aggressive and physical, so kind of healing up the girls after this past week should definitely help,” White said. “I think that’s basically all we can do because if they're good to go and they're healed and they're fresh, they’re going to play their best and hopefully win all of the games.”